civil status forms are updated

“Allow all families to be considered,” this is the objective of this update of administrative documents. Present at a ceremony in Paris to celebrate the 20 years of Flag, an LGBT + association of agents from the Ministries of the Interior and Justice, firefighters, municipal police officers, Marlène Schiappa announced changes concerning web civil status forms and paper. New boxes will appear from March 2022. From now on, for any request for identity papers, the words “father” and “mother” will no longer appear, but boxes to be checked to indicate whether it is the father or from the mother. “This will indicate, when this is the case, that you have two moms or two dads, or that you are two moms and two dads,” explained the Minister for Citizenship, Friday, November 12.

“We welcome this long-awaited decision“, reacted Alexandre Urwicz, president of the Association of homoparental families, to AFP. However, he regretted “That this change take place in 2022 and that it took eight years to update forms”

Eight years after access to adoption

Promulgated on May 17, 2013, the same-sex marriage law also allowed adoption for same-sex couples. The updating of the forms will therefore take place nine years after the law. If the national directive was long overdue, some cities had already taken the lead.

Some cities like Paris, Strasbourg, Saint-Étienne or Villeurbanne had already made their forms more inclusive. But in most of the identity papers application forms, it was still necessary to cross out the mentions father or mother. Contrary to some ideas put in place in other areas, this update allows you to keep the title of ‘father’ or ‘mother’ rather than being referred to as ‘parent 1’ and ‘parent 2’. A late announcement but more than essential for Alexandre Urwicz: “It is not up to the citizen to adapt to the administration in order to fit into boxes, it is up to the public service to adapt.”

Article written in collaboration with 6medias.